Shinsuke Nakamura
Shinsuke Nakamura is not to be confused with Shunsuke Nakamura, the Japanese football player. | weight= | birth_date = | death_date = | birth_place = Mineyama, Kyoto, Japan | death_place = | resides = | billed = | trainer = | debut = August 29, 2002 | retired = }} is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working for New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he is the current IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Career Nakamura joined NJPW in 2002 and quickly began making a name for himself as a bright prospect for the company. Having earned the nickname "Super Rookie", Nakamura impressed both NJPW officials and fans with an excellent combination of strength, speed, and technical skill. On December 9, 2003, Nakamura defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, thus becoming the youngest wrestler in history to win the title. Nakamura held the IWGP Tag Team Championship with Hiroshi Tanahashi after winning it in a decision match by beating Kensuke Sasaki and Minoru Suzuki at the end of 2004. They left for an excursion to Mexico where they feuded with Los Guerreros del Infierno and defended their titles against Rey Bucanero and Olímpico. A few weeks later, on October 30, 2005, they lost the titles to Masahiro Chono and Tenzan. Shinsuke Nakamura also has competed in mixed martial arts against the likes of Alexey Ignashov and "Giant" Nortje in various mixed martial arts events. Nakamura challenged Brock Lesnar for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on January 4, 2006, but lost. In March 2006, Nakamura announced that he would depart on a learning excursion in order to further improve his wrestling skills. Among other things, he would travel to Mexico, Brazil and Russia, as well as train with Brock Lesnar at his personal gym in order to gain muscle mass. NJPW President Simon Inoki later suggested that as part of his learning excursion, Nakamura would be loaned to WWE to gain experience in working large American shows; this was reportedly at the request of John Laurinaitis and Dean Malenko. However, it proved to be mostly speculation and never came to pass, as Nakamura was urgently needed back in New Japan due to Lesnar's departure. On September 24, 2006, Nakamura made his long awaited return to New Japan. He had greatly improved his muscular mass during his overseas training and now weighs in 245 pounds. He also debuted a new finisher, called the Landslide, to take advantage of his newly-acquired power-up of strength. Despite his increased muscular mass, Nakamura still remains as mobile in the ring as he has ever been. However, due to not being entirely used to it, he fell on December 10, 2006 in a IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge to champion Tanahashi and January 4, 2007 in the Tokyo Dome to Toshiaki Kawada. In late 2007, Nakamura established the stable known as "RISE" consisting of himself, Minoru, Milano Collection A.T., Hirooki Goto, Giant Bernard, Travis Tomko, and Prince Devitt. Low Ki was later added to the stable after Milano was injured, having impressed NJPW officials during an appearance when he was still with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. On January 4, 2008 Nakamura defeated his rival Tanahashi in the main event of the Wrestle Kingdom II show, winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the second time. He followed that up with defeating Kurt Angle on February 17, 2008 to win the IWGP Third Belt Championship and unify it with his own title. He lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Keiji Mutoh in Osaka on April 27, 2008. September 5, 2008 Nakamura and stable mate Hirooki Goto challenged Togi Makabe and Toru Yano for the IWGP Tag team titles but failed, afterwards Giant Bernard and Rick Fuller attacked Goto and Nakamura and joined Makabe's GBH group along with the returning Low Ki. He also failed to win back the IWGP Title from Keiji Mutoh in October. On February 15, 2009 Nakamura faced Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Championship, but once again failed to regain the title. In March 2009 Nakamura turned heel, siding with the former members of GBH in a feud against Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma. This new group was soon named CHAOS with Nakamura as the leader. Nakamura began to work a much rougher style, continuing to use a straight right hand as a frequent move in addition to the Boma Ye, his new finisher. It was the Boma Ye that took him to the finals of the 2009 G1 Climax where he fell to Togi Makabe. Prior to the final Nakamura had gone undefeated, winning each match with the Boma Ye. The move was also credited for fracturing IWGP Heavyweight champion Hiroshi Tanahashi's orbital bone in the semi-finals of the G1, which forced Tanahashi to vacate the title. On September 27, 2009, Nakamura defeated Makabe in a decision match to win the IWGP Heavyweight title for a third time. Upon winning the title, Nakamura drew the ire of the likes of Antonio Inoki by announcing his plan of wanting to restore the "Strong Style" of New Japan by capturing the original IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt from Inoki to replace the one Nakamura has (the belt Nakamura has is the fourth-generation IWGP Heavyweight Championship). On November 8 at Destruction '09 Nakamura successfully defended his title against previous champion Hiroshi Tanahashi. On December 5, he retained the title by defeating Yuji Nagata. On January 4, 2010, at Wrestle Kingdom IV in Tokyo Dome Nakamura successfully defended his IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Yoshihiro Takayama. After defeating Takayama he was challenged by Manabu Nakanishi. On February 14 at New Japan's ISM show in Sumo Hall, Nakamura pinned Nakanishi in the main event after a Boma Ye to make his fifth defense. In wrestling *'Finishing moves' **''Boma Ye'' (Knee kick to the face) **Cross armbar **''Landslide'' (Samoan driver, sometimes from the second or top rope) **''Shining Triangle'' (Nakamura steps off one of the kneeling opponent's knees and quickly applies a triangle choke) *'Signature moves' **Death Valley driver **Double underhook piledriver **''El Niño'' (Springboard moonsault) **Enzuigiri **Folding powerbomb **Front facelock sleeper hold **Inverted powerslam **Knockout punch **Multiple suplex variations ***Bridging / Release German ***Bridging / Release belly to back ***Flipping release leg hook belly to back ***Tiger **Roundhouse kick **Spinning wheel kick *'Nicknames' **"Child of God" **"The Black Savior" **"The Super Rookie" **"Supernova" **"Guilty Strong Style" *'Entrance themes **"Moving City" **"Subconscious" Championships and accomplishments *'Inoki Genome Federation' :*IWGP Third Belt Championship (1 time)1 *'New Japan Pro Wrestling' :*IWGP Heavyweight Championship (3 times, current) :*IWGP U-30 Championship (1 time) :*IWGP Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Hiroshi Tanahashi :*NWF Heavyweight Championship (1 time)2 :*G1 Climax Tag League (2006) – with Masahiro Chono *'Pro Wrestling Illustrated' :*PWI ranked him #'10''' of the best 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2008 *'Tokyo Sports Grand Prix' :*Rookie of the Year Award (2003) 1After winning the IWGP Third Belt Championship, the title was unified with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, which Nakamura also held at the time. 2After winning the NWF Heavyweight Championship, the title was unified with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, which Nakamura also held at the time. Mixed martial arts record References # Newspaper article of Nakamura's move to WWE (in Japanese) External links *Profile at Jujigatame Puroresu *An in depth look at Nakamura's 2008 IWGP Heavyweight Title reign. * Category:1980 births Category:Living people Category:Japanese professional wrestlers Category:Japanese mixed martial artists Category:People from Kyoto Prefecture it:Shinsuke Nakamura ja:中邑真輔 fr:Shinsuke Nakamura